


an honest mistake

by supersapphics



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: AU, M/M, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:14:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25614931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supersapphics/pseuds/supersapphics
Summary: When realtor/interior designer Magnus meets his new clients, Isabelle and Alec Lightwood, he can tell right away that he will truly enjoy working with them - Alec in particular.The problem? Alec is married to Isabelle.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 14
Kudos: 185





	an honest mistake

**Author's Note:**

> this is a re-upload from my previous account of the same name.

Magnus has a headache and would very much like to go home, but he can’t. He has an appointment with new clients, a young couple named Alexander and Isabelle Lightwood, and they’re due to arrive any minute.

He looks down at his watch. The appointment is at 7 PM, which is a bit later than Magnus usually tends to work. But when Isabelle had called a few days ago to schedule their meeting, she’d been so charming and persuasive on the phone, explaining that she’s a doctor, and couldn’t possibly make it any earlier than 7:00, and would he mind just this once? So he’d said yes. He just hopes Dr Lightwood and her husband will be punctual.

As if summoned, a taxi pulls up to the curb and a young man and woman step onto the sidewalk. They’re currently laughing with one another; the woman continues to do so as she leans down and hands the driver some money through the open window. The man puts his hand on her elbow as she straightens up and they both turn toward Magnus.

“Welcome,” Magnus says once they’re both in earshot. “Both of you seem in high spirits.”

“Alec was just telling me a really amusing story about his day at work,” Isabelle explains. She’s stopped laughing, but the smile is still evident on her face. She’s beautiful, with long dark hair that looks like it would be pure silk to touch, bright red lipstick and a pencil skirt and blouse that cling perfectly to her figure.

Magnus’ attention, however, is momentarily captured by Alec. He’s just as stunning as his wife, with the same dark hair and a strong chest that has Magnus staring a little longer than is professionally appropriate. He forces himself to look back up and is surprised to see Alec staring right back.

“What is it you do, Mr Lightwood?” Magnus asks, after subtly clearing his throat.

“Alec, please,” Alec answers. “I’m in politics.”

“Don’t be so modest!” Isabelle interrupts. “He’s running for mayor next year,” she tells Magnus.

Magnus raises an eyebrow, impressed. A doctor and the potential mayor of New York? The Lightwoods make quite a power couple. Too bad both of them are taken. He already knows how charming Isabelle is from their phone conversation last week, but Alec…Magnus barely knows anything about him, the man has said literally five words to him, but there’s something…something about him.

Like the fact that Alec hasn’t really stopped looking at Magnus since he arrived.

Slightly flustered and trying to hide it, Magnus claps his hands together. “Well! Should we?” He gestures to the front door, which he’d left open while waiting for the couple.

“Thank you, by the way, for agreeing to meet us so late,” Isabelle says as they step into the foyer. “I just couldn’t get away from the hospital any earlier than 6:30.”

“It’s no problem,” Magnus lies, although he’s not as bothered anymore; his headache has lessened a bit, and having two gorgeous people to interact with for the next hour isn’t a bad thing by any means. “This is the first place I’ve found for you two, and personally, it’s my favorite of the three.”

He shows them around the brownstone, pointing out his favorite qualities, such as the smoothness of the wood floors, the marble island in the kitchen, the breadth of the fireplace in the living room. Both Alec and Isabelle seem impressed with everything he shows them; he regularly notices them falling back to point things out to one another, smiling and whispering amongst themselves. They’re truly an adorable couple, which is why he feels so guilty every time his eyes drift to the strong line of Alec’s back or the soft curls of his hair.

He’s incredibly attracted to a client, who also happens to be married, a client who he’ll be spending quite some time with over the next few weeks as whichever brownstone the Lightwoods choose is decorated and styled to his and Isabelle’s liking. He can’t afford this attraction, but he can’t help it. It’s not just Alec’s looks, but his voice, his laugh, the warmth of his smile as he looks to Isabelle, that draw Magnus in.

“What do you think? Any questions?” he asks when the hour is up. As he turns around, he swears he sees Alec’s eyes lifting from his ass. What the hell is going on? How can Alec be so brazen, so blatant, when his wife is standing right next to him? Not that his wife appears to have noticed, but still. Magnus had looked his fill, but he wasn’t the married one, and he’d also been a lot more subtle about it.

“I don’t think we even need to see the other two places, to be honest,” Isabelle says. “This place is perfect.”

“It made that much of an impression?” Alec asks, sounding amused.

“Didn’t it for you?”

“Of course it did, but what I think isn’t as important as what you do.”

“You’re sweet,” Isabelle smiles, placing a hand on Alec’s shoulder. She turns back to Magnus. “We’ve decided on this one.”

“Ok, well, that’s great! I’ll call the owner tomorrow morning and make an offer. When would you be available to meet here again so we can discuss decorating style?”

Alec and Isabelle trade looks. “The day after tomorrow, maybe 5:00 P.M.?” Alec suggests.

“That’s fine for me,” Isabelle agrees. “I work the night shift that day.”

“I’m free too,” Magnus confirms, after a quick double check with his calendar.

“Perfect!” Isabelle is beaming. Magnus has to say, despite having to meet them so late, he’s never had clients as charming and agreeable as the Lightwoods before. They seem so content and pleased with everything, and haven’t uttered a simple complaint so far. The fact that they’re perfectly willing to take the first brownstone without even needing to look at the others is also uncommon – it’s like they have complete faith in Magnus to decorate the place, regardless of what that place is.

“Where are you headed?” Alec asks as the three of them step back outside. Magnus doesn’t answer at first, busying himself with locking the door, but after awhile he can’t delay any further. “Brooklyn,” he responds, trying to tell himself he shouldn’t look at Alec, but he can’t help himself; he sneaks a peek and discovers Alec looking disappointed. What had he been hoping Magnus would say – somewhere in Manhattan? Why would that matter?

Maybe he’d been hoping the three of them could split a cab, but Magnus can’t imagine that a doctor and a politician have trouble paying for a couple of taxi rides. Confused, Magnus looks away, but he’s sure he can still feel Alec’s gaze on him.

Isabelle must have ordered a cab without Magnus noticing, because one pulls up to the curb only a few moments later. “That’s us,” she announces, reaching for Alec’s hand. “Thank you so much for meeting with us today, Magnus. This place is lovely and I’m sure your ideas will be even lovelier. I can’t wait to hear what you have to say on Friday.”

“I look forward to meeting you again as well,” Magnus responds truthfully. He purposefully avoids looking at Alec this time. “Have a nice night.”

Isabelle waves goodbye and tugs on Alec’s hand, pulling him after her as she makes for the cab. Magnus waits until the cab pulls away and has begun heading down the street before he allows himself to collapse back against the front door. Holy shit. He’s both dreading and looking forward to Friday, but he can’t say which emotion is stronger.

Magnus makes sure to arrive at the brownstone fifteen minutes early on Friday. He wants some time to review his notes and the sketches he’s prepared before the Lightwoods arrive. Isabelle had given him some basic information when she’d first called last week, upon which Magnus had based his notes, but today’s appointment was to make those plans more concrete.

There’s a knock on the door and Magnus looks up, frowning. Are the Lightwoods early? He’d talked to Dr Lightwood yesterday morning after the previous owner had confirmed that he agreed with the price she and Alec were offering. At that time, Isabelle had agreed that they’d meet at 5 P.M.

He leaves his notes on the table to go answer the door and is both surprised and not when he finds Alec standing on the other side.

“Hi,” Alec says the second Magnus meets his gaze. “Sorry for showing up unannounced like this, but, I was hoping I could talk to you alone for a moment.”

Magnus hesitates. He can imagine why Alec wants to talk to him alone, and as much as he’d love to, he can’t encourage this.

“I don’t have to come inside if you don’t want,” Alec continues before Magnus can think of the proper thing to say. “I can stay out here while we talk. I just want to say one thing anyway.”

That surprises Magnus enough into agreeing. “Ok, sure. Go ahead.”

“I wanted to apologize for making you uncomfortable on Wednesday. I really didn’t mean to be so blatant about the staring. I didn’t realize I was doing it at first, but Isabelle always says you can read absolutely everything on my face.”

Magnus blinks, startled. That is the absolute last thing he had been expecting Alec to say, especially with Alec mentioning his wife in the same sentence where he admits to checking out another person while said wife was present.

“I didn’t realize I was making you uncomfortable until I asked about splitting a cab. I was just hoping I’d be able to spend a little bit more time with you, but that’s when I noticed your reaction and I’m genuinely sorry for it. I hope you can forgive me. I promise it won’t happen again.”

“I – I appreciate that, thank you. To be completely honest with you, I’m attracted to you as well. But I don’t think I need to tell you why it’s inappropriate.”

“I imagine you have some professional code of ethics that doesn’t permit dating a client.”

Magnus frowns. “That’s certainly one reason, but I’m surprised I have to tell you about the other.”

Alec frowns back. “What other reason? I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you’re referring to.”

“Are you really going to make _me_ bring up Isabelle?”

“What does my sister have to do with this?”

“Your – sister.” Magnus stops, too surprised to continue.

“My sister, yes.”

His _sister._ Alec and Isabelle weren’t _married,_ they were _siblings._ No wonder Alec hadn’t hidden his attraction to Magnus – because he’d had no reason to. And the fact that he’d come here to apologize in person because he thought he’d made Magnus uncomfortable – he hadn’t known the reason for Magnus’ discomfort; he’d most likely assumed Magnus didn’t reciprocate, and had wanted to apologize because he thought he’d done something wrong. Magnus’ attraction to Alec suddenly increases tenfold.

“I thought – I thought she was your wife,” Magnus admits, feeling silly now.

“My _wife_?” Alec repeats, both sounding and looking so stunned that it would have been hilarious in any other context.

“Well!” says Magnus defensively. “When Isabelle called me, she didn’t refer to you as her brother. She just said ‘Alec and I’. And when she filled out my form online, she wrote that the interested parties were Dr and Mr Lightwood. What else was I supposed to think, especially since you’re buying a house together?”

“We aren’t,” Alec says, grinning. “She’s buying the house for herself and her fiancé, Maia.”

“Then why did she bring you along and not her fiancé?”

“Because the house is a surprise for Maia. Maia’s a marine biologist and she’s working in the Indian Ocean right now, but she’ll be back shortly after you finish decorating this place. I don’t know, I guess Izzy put my name down on the form because she knew I’d be coming with her to all the appointments. She asked for my help and of course I wasn’t going to tell my baby sister no. Plus, I know Maia and her tastes really well, she’s one of my best friends.”

“Oh,” says Magnus faintly.

“And one more thing? I’m gay.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

Alec has stepped in close now, close enough that he could very easily close the distance between them and kiss Magnus’ mouth, if he wanted. Magnus hopes he wants to. He certainly wants Alec to want to kiss him.

He releases his next breath a little shakily and Alec’s eyes flicker down to his mouth as if on cue. Alec leans even further in and –

There’s the sound of a door slamming and Magnus looks up, startled, to see Isabelle emerging from a cab parked at the curb. She comes to a stop, however, when she sees the position Magnus and Alec are in.

A smirk curves her lips. “It’s about time,” she calls. “The both of you were being so obvious the other day, it was almost unbearable.”

“Magnus thought we were married,” Alec tells her once she’s joined them at the front door.

“Alec,” Magnus hisses, which turns to a resigned sigh when Isabelle turns a look of glee upon him.

 _“Married?_ Did you really!”

“Well, you certainly acted like it! Arriving together, and you kept talking about the brownstone as if you’d be living here together. And you did put Dr and Mr Lightwood on the form.”

“Oh.” Isabelle blinks, looking genuinely surprised. “I guess I did. I wasn’t thinking really. I’ve gotten so used to keeping this a secret from Maia that I suppose I left her name off out of habit.”

“Well, everything’s cleared up now,” Magnus says, wanting this to be over with. “Why don’t we go inside and look at my plans.”

“Sure!” Isabelle brushes past the both of them and enters the house. Once she’s out of sight, Magnus and Alec look back at one another.

“I don’t want to be too forward,” Alec begins.

“Yes,” Magnus interrupts.

“You don’t even know what I was going to ask,” Alec accuses.

“You were going to ask if I wanted to get dinner, or drinks maybe, after this appointment is over.” Magnus knows he’s right, and he can’t help himself from sounding a little smug about it.

“Do you want me to say yes or no now?” Alec asks, clearly amused.

“It is what you were going to ask me, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. Do you want to?”

“Yes. Very much.”

“Great.” Alec steps closer again and –

“You two are aware that Magnus is on the clock, aren’t you?” Isabelle’s voice calls from inside the brownstone. Alec and Magnus break apart, startled.

“I guess we’d better go inside,” says Alec ruefully. “As soon as this appointment is over, I’m taking you out for a nice dinner.”

“I look forward to it.”

Alec reaches out, his hand hovering over the small of Magnus’ back until Magnus smiles encouragingly. Grinning back, Alec settles his hand on Magnus’ back and gently pushes him into the house. “So am I.”


End file.
